A global application experiences frequent writes and must survive a full Regional outage with near-zero data loss. The product team also requires that users can continue to write during the incident using the closest Region. Which approach is most aligned with these requirements?

Use warm standby with periodic backups of the primary write datastore every 24 hours.

Periodic backups do not provide near-zero data loss and can cause long RPO during an outage.

Use pilot light where the secondary Region runs only infrastructure templates and starts data replication only after detecting failure.

Starting replication after failure defeats the “near-zero data loss” and “write during incident” requirement.

Use a single-writer model in one Region and deploy read-only replicas in the other Region for continuity.

Read-only replicas cannot support continued writes during a Regional outage without failover mechanisms.

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Use an active/active design with multi-Region data replication (for example, global tables for the write-heavy datastore) and route traffic to multiple Regions based on health and latency. — The requirements—frequent writes, near-zero data loss, and continued ability to write during a Regional outage—map best to an active/active architecture. In active/active, both Regions can accept writes while data is replicated continuously (for example, using DynamoDB global tables for a write-heavy workload). Traffic can be distributed using latency-based routing, and health-based failover can shift traffic away from an impaired Region. This design minimizes RPO and supports ongoing writes without waiting for a rebuild. Why others are wrong: Warm standby with 24-hour backups cannot meet near-zero data-loss expectations; it would create a large RPO. Pilot light delays replication until after failure, which directly contradicts the need for continued writes. The single-writer model supports only read continuity in the secondary Region; continued writes would require promotion/failover and would not provide “users can continue to write” during the incident without switching.

What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?

Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.